Northern Australian Aspirations

In this brief we investigate an aspect of remote Northern Australian Aspirations through the comparison of employment and industry participation data for several clusters of communities in Central Australia. Using a snapshot of national ABS census data (2011) and industry information where available, our aim is determine whether national data adequately shows the scope of economic activities which are so essential to remote Australians, and what some of the key indicators of remote economic capacity and advantage are.

We analyse a sample of mixed-market activities in relation to economic participation in a cluster of remote Aboriginal communities in Central Australia constrained by the quality and nature of available data, and as a result gauging mixed-market activity relied on patch working industry data (as available) with 2011 ABS census data (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2014)
. We hypothesis this is likely to provide an understated impression of the contribution of mixed-markets in many remote communities, and the requirements of those in the forms of regional and non-market structures.

ABS Occupational categories represent one primary occupational activity, yet we know that many people living in sparsely populated and remote communities are occupied in a number of activities. The constraints of the data available confirm that indicators for Overcoming Remote Disadvantage (Steering Committee for the Review of Government Service Provision, 2014) and planning for Our North, Our Future: White Paper on Developing Northern Australia (Australian Government, 2015) are vulnerable to ‘non-market failure’ (Wolf, 1979) that effects mixed-market capacity and advantage.